SCEC Award Number 23120 View PDF
Proposal Category Collaborative Proposal (Data Gathering and Products)
Proposal Title Toward a Comprehensive Statewide Community Fault Model (SCFM)
Investigator(s)
Name Organization
Scott Marshall Appalachian State University Andreas Plesch Harvard University John Shaw Harvard University Philip Maechling University of Southern California
Other Participants Tran Huynh (SCEC/USC), Edric Pauk (SCEC/USC), Mei-Hui Su (SCEC/USC)
SCEC Priorities 3b, 1a, 1b SCEC Groups CXM, Seismology, Geology
Report Due Date 03/15/2024 Date Report Submitted 03/14/2024
Project Abstract
 This proposal enhanced SCEC’s Community Fault Models, including formal releases of new model versions (CFM 6.0, 6.1) for southern California (Fig. 1), and has made progress towards an initial statewide Community Fault Model (CFM 7.0). Community Fault Models (CFM’s) are widely used resources (Plesch et al., 2007; Nicholson et al., 2021; Plesch et al., 2021) with many science and seismic hazards assessment applications (e.g., Devine et al. 2022). CFM’s also directly contribute to other community modeling efforts, such as the Geological Framework (GFM), Community Rheologic (CRM), and Community Velocity (CVM-H) Models. Our team includes the SCEC CXM co-leader (Marshall), Associate Director for IT (Maechling), CXM software engineer (Mei-Hui Su), the SCEC web team (Tran Huynh and Edric Pauk), and the primary (CFM) developers (Plesch and Shaw) to improve and support the CFM’s. This collaboration has produced multiple versions of the southern California CFM, including the latest (v. 6.1, 9/2023 release) which has been comprehensively updated using detailed surface fault traces and state-of-the-art earthquake hypocenter and focal mechanism catalogs (e.g., Hauksson et al., 2012; Ross et al., 2019). This model has been peer-reviewed, yielding a formal ranking of preferred and alternative representations for major fault systems. To facilitate this review, as well as provide general access to models, our collaboration has developed and refined web-based tools that host, visualize, and deliver the CFM to a wide audience (https://www.scec.org/research/cfm-viewer/). As the most established SCEC CXM effort, many of these web-based resources are being directly used to support other community models.
Intellectual Merit The SCEC Community Fault Model version 6 (CFM 6.0) is a state-of-the art, comprehensive 3D representation of the major known faults that pose earthquake hazards in southern California. The model is used as the basis for many research and hazard assessment efforts, within and beyond SCEC. As the most established CXM effort, the CFM and its web-based resources are also being directly used to support other community models.
Broader Impacts Our collaboration has produced two new model versions (6.0 and 6.1) and updated web-based tools that host, visualize, and deliver the CFM to a wide audience. Updates to the CFM web tools facilitate use of the CFM by a wide audience including many students and other non-experts. As the most established SCEC CXM effort, many of these web-based resources are being directly used to support other community models. For example, the same backend software developed in our ongoing work is now being used by the CGM, the geologic framework component of the CRM, the Community Stress Model, and the Geologic Slip Rate Database. A tool that we developed to display large numbers of point data (earthquake catalogs) on the CFM map interface has been adopted by the CGM to display InSAR data. The main enhancements to the CFM web tools are the addition of a Google Earth kml file uploader to the map interface and the ability to resize the map interface. This will allow users to upload their own kml files to the CFM map interface to compare their own data with the CFM model. We expect this will also be of use to other CXM web tools. All these web-based tools serve to greatly increase accessibility and will facilitate the next generation of SCEC science.
Exemplary Figure Figure 1: Perspective view of the CFM 6.1. Faults are bounded at depth by the local seismogenic thickness and appear as bands. Fault color is mapped to fault area/region, the top level in a hierarchical naming system. Small dots are relocated hypocenters (after Hauksson et al., 2012), which are colored by their time of occurrence. BNRA: Basin and range, SNFA: Sierra Nevada, MJVA; Mohave, GVFA: Great Valley, GRFS: Garlock Fault, CRFA: Coast ranges, OCCA: Offshore Central California, WTRA: Western Transverse Ranges, ETRA: eastern Transverse Ranges, SAFS: San Andreas Fault, PNRA: Peninsular Ranges, SALT: Salton Sea, OCBA: Offshore Continental Borderland.
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